Meant To Be
by kausingkayn
Summary: Hundreds, if not thousands, of parallel universes are all on a collision course in Cardiff, and Torchwood has no idea how to stop it. But maybe the somewhat-familiar stranger that came through the rift knows. *Katylin Lisa Harkness-Jones returns.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Ah, back at last. Been working on this almost immediately after "Belonging" was finished, but waited till now because of my other two fics that I started. Both are winding down, so I decided to make you wait no longer. So yes, Katylin is back! And even though it isn't in first person, you have a lot in store, my friends. Also, for those of you who haven't read "Belonging" I'm not going to say that you _have_ to read it - you can read this without it - it would just make things click a little bit more.**

**Special thanks to Miss Mila, my beautiful BetaReader. You're awesome.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Torchwood, although I am proud to say that Katylin Lisa Harkness-Jones is one hundred percent mine.**

* * *

"_Ianto!" Jack's voice blared through the comms, starting Ianto from his methodical trance. He was down in the archives, filing some papers that Owen had needed a few days ago, and now didn't need anymore. Of course, nothing was quick and easy with the medic, and the files that he had requested were located all over the archives; it had taken Ianto the better part of the last two hours to put them in their places. _

_The Welshman didn't stay unbalanced for long, taping his ear in order to reply to his Captain. "Here."_

"_Tell Owen to prepare the autopsy table, and have all his medical equipment on stand-by. I want all the blankets you can find in the hub, along with blood transfusions at the ready." His voice was deadly serious, the Captain being in his 'leader' mode. Obviously, something very bad had occurred. The rift had spiked only about half an hour ago, and Tosh and Jack had gone out searching for whatever it had delivered. There had been radio silence since then, and Ianto feared the worst._

"_Jack, what is it? Are you and Tosh ok?" The man had already abandoned his mess in the archives and was emerging into the main part of the hub. _

"_Just do it!" Jack snapped. There was a pause. "Tosh and I are fine. Also, call in Gwen. Tell her to be here yesterday."_

_Ianto nodded to himself, knowing that Jack couldn't see him, before switching off the comm. If Jack had anything else to say, he'd beep in again. The Welshman didn't appreciate being snapped at, even if it was in the middle of a bloody crisis. _

_He made his way to the autopsy bay, where Owen was cataloging his equipment. "Owen, Jack said to get the table prepared."_

_The medic glanced up, a confused look on his face. "Who for?"_

_Ianto shrugged, then turned heel and left without waiting for any other questions. Owen knew what to do. After placing a phone call to Gwen, Ianto hunted down every blanket he could find, and positioned himself just to the right of the cog door, angled at a perfect sixty-five degrees. The alarm sounded and the door rolled open, and for a moment, Ianto almost lost his cold, perfect exterior shell._

_Jack strode into the hub, his hair and clothes slightly damp from the sudden rain, his face set in a permanent line, his eyes staring at the bundle in his arms, showing off the anger that his body was barely able to suppress. This confused the younger man, until he realized what it was exactly that was in the Captain's arms. It was a young child._

_It couldn't have been more than eight or nine, with long hair that swayed gently over Jack's arm. It had pale skin and fair eyelashes, making Ianto believe that the child was female. Her skin was covered in small welts and lacerations, her small lips bloodied and cracked. There was a large cut on the crown of her head, bleaching her hair a crimson red. Ianto shivered, realizing that the wounds didn't stop at the young girl's face, they traveled all down her arms, and, if Ianto guessed correctly, the rest of her body. _

_He stepped up to the plate, his arms offering up the few meager blankets he had been able to find. Jack glanced at the pathetic bunch and seemed like he was about to snap. Instead, he gave a short nod before traveling at high speed to the autopsy bay, where he gently deposited the small body. Tosh entered the hub shortly after Jack and stood next to Ianto, her eyes red with the attempt to hold back tears, a terror-stricken look on her face. "That poor girl…"_

_Ianto said nothing, but put a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder._

_In the autopsy bay, Owen took one look at the girl and shook his head. "Fuck," he whispered. "What kind of bastards would do this?"_

_The anger in Jack's eyes hardened, showing that he would like to know the answer to that exact question himself. _

_The Captain didn't have to tell the medic to do his job, for the man was already at work. He quickly rolled the child onto her back and grimaced, looking at her clothes. They were torn and bloody and partly disintegrated. Owen grabbed a pair of medical scissors and quickly cut off the clothes, getting to work on surveying the wounds. "Human?" He asked, not pausing in his work._

_Jack shrugged. "She came out of the rift."_

"_Shit," Owen mumbled as he read the information coming from the alien scanner. "I can't treat 'er with any of our stuff if I don't know she's human."_

"_Just do it, we'll deal with the consequences later," Jack growled, crossing his arms as he watched Owen work on his newfound patient. The young girl was unconscious and breathing slightly, the faint rise and fall of her chest giving away signs of life. Jack let out a shaky breath as he watched, not leaving from his watchful post. _

_Tosh had numbly gone to her desk, where she had started the process of erasing the CCTV footage in the spot where Jack had picked up their young guest. Ianto, feeling utterly helpless, disappeared into the kitchen, returning moments later with four cups of coffee. He delivered one to Tosh and left another on Owen's desk, knowing he'd drink it when he needed a break. Another he left on Gwen's desk for when she arrived, and the last he personally delivered to the Captain._

_Jack was still watching intently as Owen pulled a needle through yet another deep laceration that he had found. The Captain jumped as he glanced sideways, seeing Ianto standing there, silently holding a cup of coffee, which he passed on to Jack. The Captain took it without a word, but didn't drink. He just stared. _

_The alarm sounded again as Gwen ran into the hub, looking riled and ready to fight. "What's going on?"_

_Jack finally came out of his trance and turned to the newest member of his team. "Gwen, you're the best with children here, I was hoping you'd help our guest when she wakes up." If she wakes up, Jack thought angrily. The wounds on the young girl were not accidental; they were too precise to be an accident. They were placed strategically on the body, in places that would hurt like hell, but not cause any lasting damage. What kind of people would purposefully torture a young child –alien or not– Jack didn't know._

_Gwen went to ask Jack what he was talking about, but had her words taken from her mouth as she saw the young girl. She gasped. "Who would do something like that!?"_

_Jack's face remained grim. "Pray we find out." His hands curled tighter around the coffee cup, and Ianto intervened, taking the cup before Jack broke it._

_An hour and a half later, Owen announced that he had done all he could next to giving the child blood. He was still weary about the may-not-actually-be-human aspect, and didn't want to inadvertently kill her with human blood. He had sewed up the major lacerations and bandaged the rest. He had wiped the blood from her body and gave her some strong pain meds laced with sleeping pills and covered her up with all the blankets that Ianto had found, as well as Jack's coat which he had generously added to the pile. _

"_She doesn't look good," Owen exclaimed from his chair in the conference room, talking to Jack, who was staring at the large screen. Tosh had pulled up the CCTV footage from the autopsy room and had it rolling live so the team could keep their eyes on the young girl. "Three broken ribs, two cracked, deep laceration on her forehead, four others, each on her legs and arms. One long wound down her back, which was superficial. All those other markings were made from some kind of blade, superficial as well, but hurt like hell and are slow to heal. These were inflicted on purpose. Torture."_

_The room grew silent, as the finding was made public. Even Jack, who had already figured that out, looked even more solemn. The medic inhaled and turned the page. Jack interrupted. "Is she human?"_

"_Humanoid." Owen said, his eyes scanning the paper, even though he knew what it said. "She's a type of human, like you, Jack. Human in every sense except for a few minor changes."_

_Jack raised his eyebrow, but let the man continue._

"_You have a few small changes, your pheromones, or mutated cells, for example. She, on the other hand, is mostly different in the brain." A pause._

"_Her brain activity is different from an average human. Any human, actually. When I was stitching 'er up, I monitored her heart beat and brain activity to make sure she wasn't in any kind of coma. She wasn't. In fact, she's wide-awake, at least on a conscious state. She was able to manipulate herself into falling into subconscious while allowing her conscious to know what was going on. She knows exactly what's going on. Could probably hear us while I was working on 'er._

"_Her brain electrical impulses are different also. I can't explain it, but they're just different. She's wired completely different, completely alien. And, unlike us meager blokes, she can use a whole fifteen percent of her brain at any given time, where as we can only tap into ten percent at any moment._

"_Her heart rate is slightly higher than our normal, if her current stats are anything to go by, and her red and white blood cell count is through the roof, although the scans say a majority of them are doormat, leaving those active at about our percentage."_

_The doctor paused and breathed deeply, and the others waited for him to finish. Instead, he just sat back in his chair and threw the clipboard he had been holding halfheartedly on the table. _

"_So the answer's no, right?" Jack asked, gaining a glare from Owen._

"_Yes, she's a bloody alien." Owen spat, running his hand through his tussled hair. "A bloody alien that is about nine or ten years old, has been tortured, and thrown into a strange world."_

**--Torchwood--**

Jack sat in his office, his eyes wandering over the CCTV as he silently watched his team. Ianto was in the garage, cleaning the SUV out again after a Weevil dripped blood all over the boot. He had taken off his suit jacket a long time ago, and had loosened his tie and rolled up his sleeves so he didn't get any blood on them. With a rag in hand, he leaned into the back of the car, and Jack smirked at the view. Switching his gaze, Jack found himself watching Gwen, who was sitting at her computer desk, concentrating on wrapping up the case file on the latest rift movement. Since Ianto had been doing more field work, he had started to require everyone to type up their own statement for filing; the man hardly had any free time between Torchwood and…well, Torchwood. Jack would know.

The Captain then glanced toward the autopsy bay, which was empty and cold, not a soul around. He closed his eyes and imagined Owen standing there, cursing under his breath as he performed an autopsy. Then he imagined Toshiko at her desk, furiously typing away at her computer, working on a new security system that would keep UNIT's eyes away from their files for just that much longer. But when he opened his eyes, both stations stayed empty, and Jack leaned forward, pressing the button to turn off his monitor. His fingers went to a button under his desk that he pushed, revealing a secret compartment. It was the one place in the hub that Ianto didn't know about – at least, Jack didn't think that the Welshman knew about it.

The Captain pulled out a small diary from the compartment. It was small and worn and had the word 'Torchwood' engraved on the front of it. Jack opened the cover and ran his eyes over the sloppy, quickly written letters. They looked almost like his. He smirked, remembering the one entry that explained the reason for that. There was a whole life summarized in that diary that he was holding. A life that never was, at least in this dimension. A life that only he knew about.

A small alarm going off brought Jack back to the present, and the man quickly replaced the diary, sealing off the secret compartment once again before striding out of his office, his coat swishing behind him. "What is it?"

Gwen didn't even bother looking up from her computer. "Minor rift spike, located in an alleyway near Splott, I'm sending the coordinates to the SUV now…wait."

Jack had already turned and was walking toward the garage. Ianto was still down there; Jack could take him with him. However, Gwen's voice caused Jack to hesitate.

"The rift coordinates…they've been pinged."

Pinged. It was what Tosh used to do to rift coordinates that sent strange and unusual things through the rift, in order to give the Torchwood team a heads up in case anything ever came through the same place twice. It only happened several times; once being when John Hart came to visit two separate times, and another with a psychopathic alien species, which Jack _never_ wanted to have to meet again. "When was it pinged?"

Gwen typed a few things into her keyboard and frowned. "About six or seven months ago, but nothing came through, it seems like."

Jack's mind instantly went to the diary sitting in its hiding place and he approached Gwen's computer, the woman moving aside so that Jack could take the reigns. He cross-referenced the information with the new rift spike, and his frown deepened as he realized what he had discovered. The Captain turned and left without another word, this time making his way quickly to the garage.

Ianto stood up straight and unconsciously tightened his tie as he heard Jack's boisterous footsteps approach. He had heard the slight ringing of the rift alarm and had gotten the SUV ready to go, the engine already running. "Ready to go, sir."

Jack didn't even stop to make an inappropriate remark. He just jumped into the drivers seat of the SUV and took off, leaving Ianto standing there, wondering what in the bloody hell the Captain was up too.

Jack sped through the streets, not having to glance at the GPS to know exactly where the rift activity was coming from. It was the same exact alleyway, in the same exact location, at the same exact time, if his memory served him right.

He got to the location and jumped out, leaving the SUV running as he rushed to the spot. He stood his ground, in the exact same spot as before, and watched with a deep frown as the telltale signs of the rift opening danced in front of his eyes. The tear started slowly, and then went faster as more light squeezed through. Then, a body stepped through. It was female, that much Jack could tell just by a quick glimpse. She was tall and had long hair that came down to her shoulder blades. Her skin was covered in small scars, all of which looked seasoned. Her brown hair looked messy, but not ragged or poor. Her eyes were a light blue and sparkled with so many feelings and traits; serious, excited, and intelligent all rolled into one. She stepped out of the rift and crossed her arms, squinting against the newfound planet's light. Her mouth tugged into a smirk that could rival Jack's, and then burst into a full out smile. "Well, if it isn't the one, but not only, Captain Jack Harkness."

Jack stood there, his head reeling, his hands automatically going for his guns. But he stopped right before pulling them out of their holsters. He knew the woman that stood in front of him. She looked to be several years older than last time he saw her, but it had to be the same person. The same woman that came through the rift seven months ago and delivered to him a diary that forever changed his life. Katylin Lisa Harkness-Jones in the flesh.

She stepped further out of the rift, and Jack stood, unable to move, as the time tear closed behind her. As soon as it was closed she dropped her arms to her hips in a gesture that reminded Jack way too much of a certain Welshman, and started to speak. "Well, at least I'm not being held at gun point. _That_ didn't end well. I think I made it to the right universe this time…"

Her ramblings brought Jack out of his stupor. "Katylin?"

That smirk again. "Definitely right universe. Last time I saw you, I was being held at gunpoint, being demanded to tell who I was and what universe I was from. Needless to say, it was a short reunion."

"What are you talking about? Why are you here?" Jack said, fully recovered, placing his hands on his own hips.

"Universe jumping, of course." Katylin stated, as if it was the most normal thing in the whole world. Then, she grew slightly somber at the prospect of answering the next question. "What, I can't just come and visit my dad?"

Jack snorted. "I'm not your dad, at least, not in this version of life. All I have is a diary that you left me seven months ago. You aren't supposed to be here, you could create–"

"Yeah, yeah, a parallel universe, I know." Katylin said, waving off Jack's accusation like it was nothing. Then she sighed and a slight downward tilt appeared on her lips. "Actually, that's the main reason I'm here."

Jack crossed his arms, his frown turning into a deep scowl. "What is it?"

"Long or short?" She asked.

"Short." Jack said tersely, remembering from the diary entries how Katylin tended to ramble on and on, not always on the topic that she started with. He had read those pages so many times that he felt like he had actually been there. Of course, he had, but only in another dimension, or version of reality. However you wanted to look at it.

"Ok, your world is going to end," she stated, a smile playing at her lips, watching as Jack got annoyed.

"You're a bit late, already happened last week." Jack replied sarcastically.

"Ok! There are hundreds –if not thousands - of parallel universes for this planet, and suddenly, they aren't so parallel anymore. Meaning, they are on a straight collision course for _this_ universe, the original one."

"Oh," Jack stated weakly.

* * *

**Katylin sure does like to make her entrances, doesn't she?**

**Also, heads up - I am a Torchwood fan, only episodes of Doctor Who I have seen are the ones where the Daleks stole Earth. That's it. So, I'm pretty sure that there is a definition of parallel worlds/universes and other dimensions out there somewhere, so I ask you to completely disregard those. I made up my own definition in order for this plotline that I have to work. ^_^ **

**Ok, done talking now. Review?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: It's absolutely wonderful to see everyone back and reading this! Here's the next chapter, sorry for taking so long. I'm really excited about this one and where it is going to go. Thanks to all of my reviewers and silent stalkers, and my beta, love ya'll!**

**Follow me on twitter at /kausingkayn**

**Check me out on LJ as kausingkayn**

* * *

_It had been two days, and she was still unconscious. _

_She was still unconscious, and her wounds were almost gone._

_The past two days, Jack had watched her. The rift had been mostly silent, with only a few minor aliens to come through, which he assigned members of his team to take care of. Sometimes, being the boss was a good thing. _

_He had been the only one to see first hand, to watch as her wounds slowly disappeared. To see her skin crawl and move and grow at a painstakingly low rate, covering the lacerations, erasing any sign that she had ever been hurt. He asked Owen about it, the first time he noticed. The medic just shrugged, ran some more tests, then declared that she was doing it, mentally telling her skin cells to 'hurry up and to the bloody job already.' _

_Jack wasn't sure what to think of the girl. She was so young and innocent looking. Yet, from what Owen's reports have come up with, she was anything but. In fact, she was probably _the_ most dangerous person in the hub, and more thank likely one of the most dangerous alien things. And that made Jack think about what would happen when she woke up._

"_Jack."_

_It was Owen. Again. The Captain turned and gave the medic a small smile, which disappeared when he realized that the other man was carrying another clipboard. A clipboard that probably contained even more bad news about their latest arrival. "Please tell me it's something good."_

_Owen opened his mouth, hesitated, then closed it again before ducking his head to re-read the information on the file. "I did a few more tests, more mental that physical. She's not mature yet."_

_Jack raised his eyebrow. "I could tell that from just looking at her, Owen. You're loosing your touch."_

_The medic rolled his eyes. "You know full well what I'm saying. Her… 'powers' aren't fully developed. I thought she was staying unconscious because of the wounds, not wanting to confront the pain directly. However, I realized that the healing and whatever the hell else she's been doing, it takes a lot of power. Power that, when awake, is used to run other things."_

"_So you're saying, when she matures, she can do all of this _without_ being asleep?"_

_Owen shrugged. "Dunno. I've only had two days to do tests, and some are unreliable at best because of her chemical make up. "_

_The Captain frowned and nodded to Owen, his arms crossing over his chest as he thought about their situation. Then he turned toward where the computers were set up. "Tosh?"_

"_Yes, Jack?" The computer experts voice yelled back._

"_Any luck?" Jack had asked her to record the rift signature from where the girl came through, and monitor any recent activity in hope that another portal would open up, allowing them access to her real world, and maybe a chance to get her back to where she belonged. The others were a bit hesitant at that concept at first – the place the girl came from was where her wounds were inflicted. But Jack knew what he was doing, and knew what happened to people who were out of their time – their world. It never ended good._

"_No, nothing. I'll set up a programme that I've been working on to track it for me, but I don't think there's much of a chance anymore."_

_Jack didn't reply, instead, he turned back to stare down into the medical bay, watching. What was he to do? She was a ten year old girl, he surely couldn't lock her up in the cells, nor could they send her home. Jack thought about Flat Holm island. He could keep her there forever. But was that fair? Was that the right thing to do?_

_Jack stood up straight and closed his eyes for a second longer than would be deemed normal for a blink, then walked down the steps into the bay, keeping his eyes on the young girl. He approached the side of the table and leaned over, his elbows hitting the cool surface of the slab as he studied her face, thinking deeply about her future._

_She blinked._

_Jack let out a loud cry of surprise and fell backwards, crashing into one of Owen's medical carts. The sensors that were monitoring her started to go haywire, all sorts of alarms going off. It took only seconds for the rest of the team to reach the autopsy bay, guns out and pointing at the child. After realizing that she was awake, Owen lowered his gun and handed it to Ianto before running down the steps, morphing into the role of the doctor and checking her pulse, her vital signs, reading the information that the machines had to give._

_Ianto had also lower his gun, and had placed both of the weapons he was holding into his waistband, not wanting to miss anything because he had slipped out and put them away._

_Tosh and Gwen did the same, staying silent, waiting to see what would happen next._

_But the girl on the gurney didn't notice any of this. She didn't glance toward Owen and his flitting around, nor up at the three standing above her. No, she only stared at Jack, a sad, scared look of her face. She had turned her head and was watching him, and for a moment the irony flashed through Jack's mind. Then, she gave a hint of a smile, and parted her lips. "Save me, Jack Harkness."_

_Then her eyes fluttered closed, and the machines stopped beeping. Owen froze and glanced at the Captain long enough to see the surprised look on his face before checking to see that everything was back to normal – which it was._

"_She – she knew me." Jack whispered, still lying on the floor where he had landed. _

_Owen shook his head. "Jack, remember, I told you that she was still consciously aware. She could have heard us talking."_

_But Jack shook his head and staggered to his feet, still staring at the girl like she would come back awake and say his name again. Then he glanced up and met the eyes of Gwen, and it was obvious that she had heard. Obvious that all of them had hear the four simple words that the girl had said._

_Jack pushed the feelings out of his head and stared at the medic, a determination in his eyes. He now knew what to do. _

"_Owen," Jack whispered when he was close enough so that the others couldn't hear him. "I want you to retcon her."_

"_Retcon, Jack?" Owen asked, caught off guard by the request. Jack flinched from the loudness of the medics voice, and gestured for him to lower his voice. Owen rolled his eyes and glanced up, seeing that the rest of the team had left already, and turned his attention back to Jack. _

"_Didn't you hear her? 'help me.' That's what she said, and that's what I'm about to do."_

"_I don't think that meant to wipe her memory!" Owen hissed._

_But Jack's mind was already made up. "She was in _pain_ Owen. A ten year old little girl in pain, and she asked me to help her. How else do you suggest for us to help?"_

_But Owen also knew Jack's other motive. "She sure as hell didn't sound like any ten year old I know – "_

" – _And that would be how many, exactly?" Jack interrupted._

_Owen ignored him. "And retconning her would also erase any training she has ever had with her brain or body, which means she will forget how to heal, how to induce unconsciousness while still remaining aware – She'll forget how to use her 'powers,' which renders her harmless. You're scared of her, Jack – and you want to fix that."_

_Jack jutted his chin out and took a stance which told Owen that he had been insulted – insulted, but not wrong. "I'm still waiting for other suggestions."_

_The medic sighed and shook his head, knowing that Jack was being nice. The man could order him to do it – even though Owen still wouldn't comply. Or, the Captain could just do it himself. But he was asking, and while Owen resented it, he also respected it. "Fine. I'll give her our special dose, but it's not in pill form, it's liquid. She'll remember basics, language, minor comprehension skills, blah blah blah. Shouldn't be a problem, with a brain like that, she'll catch on quick."_

_Jack nodded, already knowing this information, but not saying so. He knew that Owen knew that as well, and was only saying it out loud to comfort himself. The Captain didn't blame him._

_Jack watched as Owen pulled a large syringe from a locked drawer of one of his carts, and squirt some liquid out experimentally. It was fine. Then he glanced at the girl on the table, closed his eyes, then opened them and jabbed the needle into the girl's arm, piercing a vein. Owen injected the liquid into her system, watching at the syringe grew dry._

_It was done._

**--Torchwood--**

"I can't wait to see the hub again! I wonder if it is any different in this dimension…" Katylin said excitedly as she stared out of the windows of the SUV, taking in the sights of Cardiff that she had been away from for so long.

Jack stayed uncharacteristically quiet, choosing to stare straight ahead at the road, driving the _actual_ speed limit as he thought about what had just happened.

"_There are hundreds –if not thousands– of parallel universes for this planet, and they are on a straight collision course for this universe, the original one."_ If what she had said was true, then they were in for a lot of trouble. He knew that there had to be one or two parallel universes out there somewhere – hell, he had _been_ to several in his years. But to have them crash into the original timeline – the one where the events that were meant to be would unfold without hitch – lets just say that there is a reason that these other dimensions were called parallel and not perpendicular.

"And to see everyone again! Owen, Tosh, Gwen, _Tad_ – even though they don't actually remember me, I'm pretty sure I did a good job giving the details in the diary – Jack?" Katylin stopped her energetic babbling and gave a worried glance to the Captain, who was still staring straight ahead.

He broke his gaze and turned his head toward Katylin for a few short seconds, aggravation shooting through his features before he once again reverted his attention to the road. "What?"

"You seem…distracted." She said, genuine worry laced through her voice, causing Jack's hands to grab the wheel even tighter.

"Well, it's kind of hard to concentrate when you just learned that the universe is going to end." He said snarkily.

Katylin raised her eyebrow in a way that almost mirrored Jack's own expression of doubt. "I know you, Jack. You don't freak out about that kind of stuff. At least, not outwardly."

Jack slammed his hand into the steering wheel, and cursed under his breath as the car went out of control for a few seconds. He righted it, then took a deep breath to calm himself. It didn't work. "No! That's the thing – you _don't_ know me! You know some other Jack from some other time line, who isn't _me!_"

Katylin frowned and sat back in her seat, running her hand through her hair and adopting an annoyed look that Ianto would give him when trying to explain something supposedly simple, and Jack just couldn't understand. "It's not – you are – the thing is…god, why is this so bloody hard!"

Then she shook her head and straightened back up, glancing at Jack. "It's complicated, it really is. I didn't actually understand it until a short while ago, and even _now_ I'm not sure some times. Just, lets get back to the hub first and I'll explain it to everyone at once. I think that'd be easier."

Jack sighed and slowed down the SUV. They were almost back to the hub, and there were several things that he had neglected to inform Katylin of. "It's not going to be that easy…"

Katylin shot him a hard look, and Jack actually felt himself squirming in his seat – Him, Jack Harkness, _squirming._

"I…I never let them read your diary."

Silence filled the car, minus the obvious rev of the engine, and the occasional sound that came from outside of the SUV. "What do you mean."

Jack winced at the razors that were in her voice. "I never told them. And frankly, I don't think they needed to know. There are things that happen – or don't happen, that they never need to know about." Like the year that never was.

"Oh, and I, your own _daughter_, was one of those things?!" She was loud now, angry, hurt. She knew that the man she was looking at wasn't the same person who had cleaned her cuts and bruises, who tucked her in at night and held her when she had cried. The man who had saved her. But he _was_, in a sense. In a strange, confusing way.

"Look, Katylin. I'm the boss, ok? And sometimes, boss' have to make decisions that they aren't always proud of, but are the right thing to do."

"And how, exactly, is not telling your team about a child that they raised for six years the right thing to do." She tilted her head. "Unless…."

Jack frowned deeply. He remembered from one of the passages that he read – no, scratch that – _all_ of the passages that he read, that she was very smart for someone of her age, especially in places pieces of the puzzle together.

"It's Tad, isn't it." Katylin said, and from the way Jack reacted, she knew she had hit the nail on the head. "You didn't want him to know about me, because you didn't want him to get it stuck in his mind that you actually love him – or, excuse me, loved him in another dimension."

Jack yanked the wheel to the side, throwing Katylin off balance for a moment as he sloppily pulled into the SUV's designated parking spot at the Roald Dahl Plass. The look on his face made it obvious to Katylin that he didn't want to talk about it anymore, and she didn't press him. Instead, she reached for the handle of the car, surprised when she heard the small click as the doors were locked. She looked at Jack, confusion written on her face, dread replacing it when she saw the pained look on his face.

"There's something else I need to tell you."

**--xXx--**

Ianto stared at the CCTV footage on his computer that was streaming from the parking garage of the Roald Dahl Plass. The footage was showing – particularly – the SUV, and the two people in it. Even with the tinted windows, Ianto could see what was going on inside, thanks to Tosh and a nifty program of hers that she had created about a year ago that would all but diminish the effects that tinted glass had on camera's. What the Welshman was seeing wasn't exactly comforting.

Jack was sitting in the drivers seat, turned toward the other occupant of the car, a woman. Ianto would say young, but it seemed as if she was older than he was, if only by a few years. The way the camera was situated, all Ianto could see was the back of Jack's head. But when he moved a bit, the Welshman could see the girl's face full on, and every time he did, he got a vague sense of familiarity, like a face in a crowd that he saw in the corner of his eyes and almost remembered.

When he first started watching it, she looked royally pissed off. However, the mood had quickly changed. Obviously, something that Jack had said made her very sad – sad enough to start sobbing into the man's chest. Ianto felt a twinge of – something – in his chest as he watched the protective way that Jack curled his arms around her and patted her head. Ianto couldn't see Jack's face, but if he could, he was sure that the Captain would be muttering some kind of empty reassurance.

"Who's that?" Gwen asked, causing Ianto to jump. He had been so intent on the feed that he hadn't heard the ex-policewoman come up behind him. The Welshman quickly minimized the screen and pulled up the facial recognition software, where he was running the mysterious girl's face through the system.

"Don't know." He said quickly as the small words at the bottom of the screen continued to flash '0 matches.'

Gwen shrugged and trudged away. Knowing Jack, they would find out soon enough. She had learned very quickly that where Jack Harkness was involved, every sentient being was either an ex or an enemy. Or both.

As soon as Gwen was out of sight, Ianto pulled the CCTV footage back on his screen and watched as the rest of the events unfold. It wasn't stalkerish, he told himself as he found himself glued to the screen. He was just doing his job, monitoring the CCTV just as Jack had asked.

It took almost half an hour, but finally the tears stopped, and the mysterious passenger in the car dried her eyes and gave a weak smile and a nod in the Captain's direction, and they stepped out of the SUV. Ianto exited out of the CCTV and shut down his computer, intent on heading to the archives to make it look like he was doing something important. However, Jack's voice stopped him.

"_Ianto, can you get the conference room ready? And brew some of your coffee goodness, will ya? Make an extra cup._"

"Yes, sir." Ianto mumbled, cutting off their link as he changed direction and angled toward the kitchen. That twinge he had gotten in his chest earlier had grown into a small ball of uncomfortableness that Ianto could only call jealousy, even though he knew there was nothing to be jealous of. How could one be jealous of another if the item of jealousness was never theirs to be jealous over?

By the time the cog door had rolled open, Ianto had the conference room set up, with steaming mugs of coffee set in front of everyone's respective seats. Gwen was already in the room, sitting in the chair to the left of Jack, a pad of paper and a pen situated in front her, ready for whatever was going to come. Ianto himself was standing out front of the room, strategically placed in the best spot to grab Jack and ask him a quick question before they all entered the conference room.

The mysterious woman came into his sight first. She had cleaned up well after half an hour of crying; most of the redness was gone from her eyes, and she had a slight smile grazing her lips. That smile grew almost tenfold as she caught sight of him, and Ianto found himself having to suppress a blush. She was pretty, now that he had a chance to see her in person and not on a computer screen. But she also had that look in her eyes that Jack had. The one that said that she had seen _way_ too much for a person so young, only hers wasn't as intense as the Captains. That thought aside, it sent slight shivers through Ianto's spine. Once again, that sense of familiarity filled him, and he watched her as she entered the conference room.

Jack came next, and Ianto reached out, gently grabbing the sleeve of his coat to stop him. Instead of asking what he was going to, however, Ianto just gave one of his rare, cheeky grins. "Should I be jealous, sir?"

Jack chuckled. "You aren't the one with reason to be jealous this time, Yan."

The Captain then entered the room and took his normal spot at the head of the table. Ianto followed him in, intending on sitting in his normal seat as well. Instead, he found the mysterious woman in _his _seat drinking _his_ coffee sitting next to _his_ Captain – he shook his head there, having allowed his min to go a bit far. The only outward sign of annoyance being a slight frown, Ianto sat in the chair next to Gwen and focused on Jack, fully expecting the man to fill them in. It was, instead, the girl who stood up and started to talk.

"Alright, so, I'm Katylin. Hi. I come from this alternate version of Earth, which – for future reference – is _not_ the same as a parallel universe, ok?" She paused, and getting only blank stares, she continued. "Ok. As you guys obviously know, there is a rift in time and space right here – literally, right here. That rift tends to spit things through to this world that aren't meant to be here." Her voice grew a bit softer at that part, and she shot a look at Jack, who was having trouble making eye contact with her. Ianto noticed this, and his frown grew deeper.

"Anyway – those things that aren't meant to come through, they change things by causing events that weren't supposed to happen. In return, it changes the future. Changing the future – at least in that way – is one thing that _cannot_ happen. Unless you want to cause a time paradox – which you don't, by the way." Katylin paused to let everything sink in. Gwen was scribbling everything down even though she had no idea about what was being discussed. Jack just sat there, his mind coming to the conclusion before Katylin was able to say it. Ianto was just sitting there, his head tilted slightly sideways, listening intently, like he always did.

Katylin gave a sad smile before returning to her talk. "So, to stop this paradox from happening, the rift fixes this little mistake by creating a parallel universe in which the events that weren't supposed to happen _did_ happen – just not in this particular universe, the _original_ universe." She realized that both Ianto and Gwen were confused, so she pulled on an easier explanation. "Have you ever felt Déjà vu? Or maybe feel like you remember something, but no matter how hard you focus on it, it just wont come? That's the exact moment in time when the parallel universe was created. If you crosschecked those feelings with rift activity, you'll find that they most always are connected."

"So our future, it's set in stone? We don't have choices?" Gwen asked, understanding the basics of what Katylin had just said, and not liking it one bit.

Katylin shrugged. "You have choices, and you make them – they just have already been predetermined or cause a parallel universe."

Ianto raised his eyebrow. "Fate: can't life with it, can't live without it."

Katylin giggled a little at his comment, gaining a strange look from the Welshman. She ignored it, and grabbed a piece of paper from Gwen's stack, and her pen as well. She drew one long straight line down the middle, running over it a few times to make it really dark. Then, lightly, she drew a lot of other, almost as straight lines above and below it. "The bold line is the original time line. All these others are parallel time lines – note the parallelism."

Then she stole another piece of paper and did the same thing, only instead of making the light lines parallel, she made them at an angle, all intersecting over the bold line at one particular point. "This is what is happening right now. It's the result of several things happening at once. One; there are _way_ too many parallel universes, and they're getting crowded – in fact, I believe I created at _least _three of them trying to get here. The only way to escape is melding with the original time line. One or two of them doing that is ok, but all of the hundreds at one? Don't think so.

"Two: parallel universes are unstable and weak at best, since they don't have any real future to support them – I'll explain later – therefore, they are drawn toward fixed points in time, other things like them. Things that don't belong – were never meant to be." This time, she stared at Jack, who was looking at her as if she was a ghost. "I'm kinda surprised that this didn't happen sooner."

Ianto realized the stricken look on the Captain's face, but didn't say anything about it. "How long do we have?"

Katylin bit her lip in concentration and thought for a moment. She ran the equation through her head, adding in variables and probabilities and working it out. It only took her a few seconds. "A month, give or take a week."

The three let out a sigh of relief. That was the best news they had heard since she had shown up. A month – give or take a week – was plenty of time to prepare for the end of the universe. Especially since they had someone here to help them who seemed to know exactly what she was talking about.

"So…" Gwen asked. "How do we fix it?"

Katylin shrugged nonchalantly. "No idea."

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**And so, the problem presents itself. Review?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Here's chapter 3. Sorry for the wait. I was a bit surprised at the lack of reaction I got from the last chapter, but whatever. Thanks to my reviewers and silent stalkers, you guys are always and forever awesome. **

**I'm a bit pissed at RTD for his latest press statement - that's all I'm gonna say thought. Grr....**

**Find me on twitter and LiveJournal as kausingkayn**

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_Jack stayed in his office the rest of the night, coming out only to make rounds down to the autopsy bay, where the young alien girl was still asleep. He would linger there for a while, before disappearing back into his office. The others worried about the Captain – only Owen knew why he was acting like he was. The medical officer, however, true to the patient confidentiality ward, said nothing about the high dose of retcon he put in her IV. The others didn't need to know – it was one of those difficult decisions that Jack needed to make, one that should stay between the two men._

_As the clock struck midnight, the doctor called it a night, going home to get some sleep. He advised Jack of what to do in case she woke up, then left. Gwen had already left a few hours ago, needing some time with Rhys to digest everything that had happened. Tosh only left after she finished perfecting her rift-tracking programme and connecting it to her PDA. _

_Finally, the hub was silent. Jack sat back in his chair, staring at his computer screen, where the little girl was laying on the table, breathing gently, in and out, in and out. Her face was peaceful, her eyes fluttering every once in a while in sleep. It was a natural REM, not the controlled unconsciousness she had been in before the retcon had gotten through her system. Jack felt a little bit of bile come up in his throat as he thought about it – did he really do the right thing? He remembered feeling like this after giving that young girl to the faeries. He had made the proper decision, but still felt empty afterwards. It didn't help that his whole team shunned him for a while – everyone but Ianto, that is. While the others made it a point not to talk to him, the Welshman was always there, a steaming cup of coffee and a small, hidden smile. _

_Jack felt the edges of his mouth twitch up as he thought about the man, and several events that had happened after that particular case. The smell of coffee hit his nose and he glanced up, seeing Ianto in the doorway, holding two cups of steaming coffee. _

_Jack closed the video feed to the medical bay. "I thought you'd gone home."_

_Ianto just shrugged. "No rest for the wicked." He entered Jack's office then, placing the cup of industrial brew on his desk before sitting himself down precariously on the edge of the desk. He glanced at Jack's computer screen and frowned, seeing nothing but the man's desktop._

_Jack took the coffee and sipped it gratefully, pausing his face over the opening of the cup as the steam and smell overwhelmed him. _

_Then Jack glanced out of the window of his office, looking into the medical bay, and his resolve crumbled. "What do I do, Yan? I – I took her memories, her life…because I was scared." Owens words echoed in his head. "She's just a kid…I can't leave her in the cells, and I can't in good mind take her to Flat Holm Island."_

_Ianto remained silent, and suddenly, Jack was worried about more than just the girl that had fallen into their lives. He was worried that Ianto wouldn't forgive him for wiping her memory, that he would finally see the kind of monster he was, and walk away from it all. But the Welshman just rested his hand on Jack's shoulder and squeezed it lightly, comforting the man. _

"_Katylin Lisa Harkness-Jones. Born 18__th__ of March, ten years of age. Biological parents got in a tragic car accident a few months ago, Katylin being in the car at the time of the crash. Both parents died, while Katylin got away with amnesia and a few abrasions. No next of kin, spent some time in child services when she was adopted by a young gay couple who wanted a child of their own. They are legally home-schooling her until she regains enough memory to be fine in public school…" Ianto drifted off, glancing at Jack, searching his face for any signs of disapproval or disgust that he would classify them as a 'couple.' But all he saw was surprise and a hint of pride in his eyes._

_So Ianto continued. "Her parents have heavy work hours, so Katylin spends time bouncing from her younger fathers apartment to her uncle Owen, aunt Tosh, and aunt Gwen's places, occasionally spending days at a local daycare, which has the highest ratings in Cardiff for children with special circumstances."_

_Jack was smiling by then, his hand having slowly moved its way to Ianto's, where he had interlaced their fingers. "Katylin?"_

_Ianto gave a small shrug. "We…Lisa wanted to have kids…once we got married. She loved the name – I hated it."_

_Jack stood up and pulled the Welshman close, kissing his lips gently before pulling him into a long, comforting hug. Ianto put down his coffee before getting enveloped, and sighed in contentment as Jack buried his face into the man's shoulder. _

"_Thank you." The Captain murmured. Ianto replied by hugging him tighter._

_And thus, Katylin Lisa Harkness-Jones was born._

She sat there, perched on top of the autopsy table, a cup of quickly-cooling coffee in her hands. She was cross-legged and hunched over, causing Ianto's fingers to twitch. For some odd reason, all he wanted to do was go over there and scold the woman for bending her spine like that. There was a reason that people became hunched over, and the way she was sitting was one of them…he shook his head and tried to concentrate on what he was doing, but he was finding it increasingly difficult.

She was staring at him.

It wasn't the stalkerish kind of staring, either. That kind of staring he could deal with. But the way she was looking at him – with sadness and happiness and longing all twisted into one – it was unnerving. He didn't even know her, yet she wouldn't let her gaze shift off of him. It had been going on for almost half an hour. Finally, Ianto couldn't take it anymore. He cleared his throat and stood up straight, shuffling his papers into a neat stack before walking over to her, placing his hands deep into his pockets and scrunching his shoulders like he does when he is out of his comfort zone. "What."

She blinked several times in rapid succession and moved, wincing slightly as she tried to get the circulation to come back into her feet. "Sorry?"

"You were staring." Ianto said in a monotonous tone, a bit confused. She seemed as if she almost just woke up from some sort of trance, yet he was sure she had been watching him.

"Oh. Sorry, I was working something out." She said nonchalantly, taking a sip of her coffee then grimacing as the cooling liquid touched her tongue.

"Working what out?" Ianto asked, his curiosity piqued.

She shrugged, uncrossing her legs and allowing them to dangle, the tips of her shoes scrapping against the floor. "Trying to get a better estimate on how long we have until the parallel universes collide – or at least until we start to feel their effects."

Ianto stared at her blankly. She couldn't be serious. "In your head." He stated, just to make sure.

She nodded, then smirked a bit. "Oh, that's right. You guys still need computers for that kind of stuff." She hopped down from the table and placed her cup of coffee on the chrome surface. "That's what happens when you spend too much time around intelligent beings." She winked at him then slipped away, stopping at the stairs and turning back, looking at him again with that same expression on her face. Then she smiled and turned, heading toward the central area of the hub. Ianto shook his head then gathered up her mug, intent on bringing it back to the small kitchen where he would give it a good scrubbing.

He wasn't really that concerned about the whole parallel universe thing. They had a good month to figure it out, and Jack was good with those kind of things. He always understood stuff like that, always going on about time paradoxes and the rules of time traveling. They would figure it out, maybe encounter a few bumps and ugly looking aliens on the way – a few suits would be ruined. But Jack would figure it out, he always did. Especially with this new Katylin girl, who seemed to be a lot smarter than the average late-twenties human.

Ianto stared at the autopsy table then realized where he was. It was the first time he had stood in the room without feeling a small pang of lost. Owen would have known what to do, he could have had some tests done to determine what exactly Katylin was. She came through the rift and was an obvious friend of Jacks – two things that normally don't go together so well. Yet she was so…no, normal wasn't the right word.

He bit his bottom lip in thought, then pushed his muses to the back of his head. If Jack wanted to tell him about her, then he would. It wasn't as if he was his…boyfriend…or anything.

Ianto left the autopsy room and the memories it held, determined to make it to the kitchen. He paused, however, when he found Katylin sitting in _Tosh's_ seat, on _Tosh's_ computer, messing with one of the woman's programmes that Ianto vaguely recognized. He sat the mugs down on the closest clean surface and approached her. "What are you doing?"

She was focusing on the computer screen, adjusting the readings that flew across the screen, a large grin on her face. "Oh, Tosh, you're brilliant. I never did tell you that enough."

Ianto frowned – she knew Tosh too? The Welshman glanced toward Jack's office, where the man was depleting his own resources on finding out more about the impending doom. Then he shifted his glance back to the strange woman and reiterated his question.

"Rift predictor programme Toshiko was working on before she died." Katylin explained, a slight strain entering her voice as she said Tosh's name – more evidence that she had known the computer expert personally. "God, she was _so_ close! If I adjust a few things, I should be able to figure out when the collision will start, and where the focal point is that they will be collapsing into…"

Katylin drifted off, not bothering to use any more energy on a further explanation. Ianto opened his mouth, then shut it, realizing that now was not a good time to be asking questions. Then, the alarm went off in the hub, causing Katylin to jump. "Shit!" she exclaimed in surprise.

Ianto found himself chuckling, although he didn't know why her reaction elicited such a response out of him. Before he had time to think about it too much, though, Jack came barging out of his office, his RAF coat already on his shoulders. Gwen came out of wherever it was she had been as well, her hands loading her handgun. "What's up?"

Ianto turned to the closest uninhabited computer and opened the blinking file. "Two Weevils spotted, one near Splott, the other a few miles away."

Jack nodded and flashed a large, pearly white grin. "Let's go, kids. Ianto, you're with Gwen. Kat, with me."

Katylin turned away from the computer and nodded, a grin on her face large enough to match the Captains. Jack nodded and began taking the steps two at a time. "Ianto, get our guest armed. We'll drop you off on our way to Splott."

Ianto nodded, somewhat glad that there were some Weevils on the prowl at the moment. He needed something to take his mind off of the recent events.

**--Torchwood--**

It was quiet – the only sounds that were heard was the soft growls of the hunted and the shallow breathing of the hunted. Boots and sneakers made cobbled noises as they came in contact with the ground, each step sounding like a lions roar. Tranquilizer guns were held at the ready, actual guns tucked into waistbands, just in case.

Jack pressed himself flat against the wall and held his finger to his lips while his other hand pointed with tranquilizer straight up. Katylin nodded and did the same, only on the opposite wall. Jack gave her an excited smirk then swiftly jumped out and in the line of fire, putting himself in full view of the alleyway around the corner, his gun held steady, finger ready to squeeze the trigger.

He gasped.

Jack's arms fell, his weapon clattering to the alley floor as the metal slipped out of his fingertips. The Captain stood there for a heartbeat, his face frozen in shock. Then, he sprung, his body tensing then releasing the pressure as he began to run – full speed, at the alley wall.

Katylin, standing behind him, weapon still drawn, saw nothing in the alleyway but bins overflowing with trash and the random cardboard box. Yet Jack had acted like he'd seen something important. With a frown, Katylin followed after him.

Jack launched himself at the wall, slamming against it and letting out an oomph as his lungs were deprived of all their air. He let out an anguished cry and started to beat against the wall with his fist, the skin tearing off and his hand becoming bloody. Then, he turned around, his eyes wide and brimming with frustrated tears. "Did you see it!" He yelled. "The TARDIS! It was here…The Doctor…I missed him…"

Katylin shook her head, placing her gun back into her waistband. "Jack…there was nothing there…"

"Don't say that!" He spat, pacing back and forth, glancing back at the alleyway wall. "I saw it…I know I saw him…"

And Katylin's eyebrows knitted together as she thought, and ran some equations through her head. And then she gasped. "Oh shit…no…" Her knees became weak, and she felt lightheaded. She allowed her legs to collapse and her hands protected her fall. She stayed there, on the ground, shaking her head, running the math over and over, trying to find fault. But there was none. "Oh god, this is how it starts…"

Jack – as suddenly as he became crazed – calmed again, and glanced at Katylin with worry in his eyes. He looked back at the alleyway wall then at his hand. He had run toward it, screaming…his hand was bleeding. He remembered feeling all alone, left behind…but there had been nothing there. Concerned, he knelt down next to Katylin. "What starts?"

"The collision." She said, taking a shaky breath. "The end of the universe…I – I thought we had more time. Time to figure it out, but I was wrong. Damn it, I was wrong! I forgot…I forgot to factor _you_ into the equation…of course it would work faster…idiot…"

She babbled to herself, shaking her head. Jack grabbed her firmly by the shoulders and forced her to look into his eyes, forced her to focus. "Talk to me."

"This is how it starts. Fragments from the other dimensions – future, past, alternate presents – you catch little glimpses, and for a moment, it is real, not just a memory. People start seeing ghosts…going mad…unable to concern what is real and just a glimpse of another parallel universe – "

" – Wait." Jack butted in, standing up and taking a small step back, his mind fast at work. "How do you know about this? About what happens?"

And Katylin looked up at him, the pain and self-hatred that she had been hiding so well now evident in her eyes. And Jack understood. "It happened to you, didn't it." He whispered. "Your universe…that's why you are here."

She nodded, mutely, still on the ground, unable to force herself to look at Jack. Because it was all her fault that her universe was gone. She had been too cocky, too confident. And it had cost her. She had been the leader of the revolution, and the revolution had started to fail. More and more lives were being lost, and the number of the dead was too much to say that it was for the cause. She had been desperate, and attempted to find the rift – to use it. To create a program to predict what would happen, and use that information to tear the government apart.

It had worked.

And she had been greedy, telling others about her accomplishment. They were smart – smarter than her, they had figured out how to travel through it. It had worked for a while, until the traveling had become too much, two many variables and not enough constants. That was when people started seeing ghosts. It wasn't until it was too late, that the world had already gone mad – that Katylin had figured it out. But by then, the universe – the whole _universe_ – was lost, collapsing in on itself. So she fled.

She fled, and spent years trying to find a way to help her destroyed universe. Halfway through her search she had begun to pick up those readings again…and they had been coming from Earth. Jack and Ianto's Earth.

"It's happening again." Katylin said, mostly to herself. "It's happening again and I thought I had more time and I thought you'd know what to do but I screwed up and now…now the end of the universe begins again."

Jack frowned in disapproval and leaned down, pulling Katylin to her feet. He hugged her and kissed her forehead then glanced up in the sky, his arm slung around her shoulder. "Not on my watch."

And Katylin felt a little bud of hope blossom in her chest.

* * *

**Dun dun dun.**

**Review?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Here you are, another chapter. Thanks to my reviewers and silent stalkers, you guys are awesome. I was hit with a brilliant idea today in the car - an idea that quickly become the sequel for this. That being said, I'm going to work on that...this is shaping up to become a long-lasting series of mine. Anywho.**

**Special thanks to my beta-reader, who is awesome in all aspects of the word.**

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Katylin leaned on the old, rusted fence, her eyes closed as she allowed the soft wind to tickle her face. She breathed in deeply, the scent of pine trees and freshly cut grass filling her nose. The sound of children's laughter reached her ears, and she opened her eyes, a smile growing on her face as she watched the scene in front of her unfold.

It was a few weeks into the school year, and the children of the 7th grade class were coming outside to play. If she had been in _her _version of Earth, she would be mixed in with the laughing children. She scanned the crowd, looking for her friends. She caught a glimpse of Jay, always the center of the boys' attention. Off to the side she saw Kyle, and she frowned a little. He was standing by himself, looking lonely and scared. The poor boy had been picked on before she entered school. She had been quick to befriend Kyle, then Jay, thus leading Jay and Kyle to become fast friends. No one messed with him after they saw him hanging out with Jay. Her frown deepened even more as she watched another familiar face enter the crowd. Katylin had forgotten his name – that was how important he was – but still remembered what he had done. He had been her first real boyfriend, but had broken up with her after learning about her two dads. It was shortly after that that her normal life had gone to hell.

Katylin sighed, and then watched events fold out a little more, overlapping the occurrences with what happened in _her _life. It was amazing the difference that one person could make.

She turned to leave, and jumped in the air, her hand automatically moving to where she was keeping her weapon. Then she recognized who it was, and her face turned white.

"Why are you here?" She whispered, although she wasn't expecting a reply. Last time he hadn't said anything to her either.

He was average height and human origin – at least, he looked to be humanoid. His skin was slightly pale, as if he didn't get out in the sun as much as he should. He had a large nose and sharp cheekbones that caused the rest of his face to be in proportion. His hair was messy and quiet heavy on the top. He wore the strangest clothes – black trousers and an off-white shirt with red braces. There was a brown jacket and a red bow tie to top everything off. But the thing that was the most captivating of him was his eyes – the depth and mixture of emotions. They looked like Jack's – someone far out of his time and too old for his own good.

She pressed her back against the gate to prevent herself from falling over. As his eyes stared deep into hers, Katylin was hit was a barrage of emotions. Hurt, grief, sadness, happiness, content, and most of all – love. Love directed toward the silent man, a feeling that she knew in her heart he returned – though maybe not to the same degree.

But while part of her brain wanted to reach out and hug him and grasp him tight and cry for everything lost, the other half of her knew that her fingers would just slip right through him, and that those feelings she felt were not meant to be. He was just one of those illusions, a sneak peak of one of the thousands of parallel worlds.

When she had been on her home planet, she had fallen into one – the one with this man in it. She could never remember his name, but she knew he was from Earth – this Earth. She knew because Jack and Ianto were there, along with Tosh and Owen and Gwen. Everyone was happy and laughing – this mysterious man knew that she came through the rift. But he was there because he wanted to be there. And she had never been so happy…that had been the last thing she had seen before fleeing her home planet.

Katylin stared at the man – the illusion – and tried to fight the feelings. "Why won't you go away! I don't want to loose this universe…not Tad…not Jack…please."

But he just tilted his head sideways and gave her a loopy grin and sighed, as if she had just asked if he wanted to go out for a walk. She balled up her fists and swung at him, already knowing that she would hit nothing but thin air.

"Go away!" She screamed, closing her eyes, wishing he would leave. When she opened them, he was gone. Katylin suppressed the tears that were threatening to pour and started to walk away, aiming for the hub. The time for the universe to end was coming close, and she didn't want to be alone.

**--Torchwood--**

Gwen entered her flat, calling out to Rhys as she entered. It was late, and he was more than likely in bed, asleep. Never hurt to make sure though. She dropped her keys off on the first flat surface she could find, and then ventured into the kitchen. Her husband was important, but her empty stomach called first dibs on her attention.

The Welshwoman ruffled around the drawers, searching for something that could be considered food. Her head was submerged in the icy coldness, and she took a moment to just close her eyes and breath in the frigid air. It felt good, especially after a day like this. Jack showing up from a rift alarm with some random girl in tow was one thing. The girl confused Gwen – it seemed as if Jack knew her, and even though Gwen was sure she had never seen her before in her life, there was a connection there – like what she felt whenever she saw ex boyfriends. The tugging on the heart when she spent half a second wondering what might have been. The fact that the girl knew her way around the hub was another thing. Alternate universe, maybe? Gwen shook her head, too much thought.

And then there was that look in the girl's eyes. A look that surpassed her years – almost the same thing that was present in Jack's. Katylin had seen sights that no one should ever see, and she was living with the consequences. It was that frighteningly deep and everlasting gaze that Gwen had seen in survivors of unfortunate events – only tenfold. It scared her.

Gwen started to shiver, and quickly opened her eyes, back to the task at hand. She zeroed in on a small piece of a sandwich that her husband left, and was reaching for it when she stopped. It sounded as if someone was walking around in the living room.

"Rhys? You should know better than to sneak up on me," Gwen said, a smile growing on her face. After learning of the universes impending doom, it would be nice to forget about it for a little while. She stood up and looked into the living room, expecting to see Rhys. She gasped and her hand automatically went to the gun on her waist when she took in the sight before her.

Standing in the middle of the living room was a man. It wasn't Rhys – no, he was too tall (and skinny) for that. He stood by the television, staring at the blank screen with an amused smile on his face. He laughed at nothing, and then cocked his hip, placing a hand on his waist while calling for someone unseen. He was tan and had jet black hair. His clothes consisted of jeans and a close-knit sweater. Gwen watched, mesmerized, as another unknown entered the room. A woman, blonde and short and beautiful, walked to the man's side and gave his a quick kiss. Gwen blinked, and then they were gone.

Trembling, she stumbled backwards until she came in contact with her kitchen cabinets. She fumbled for her phone, which she used to dial Jack's cell. He answered on the third ring.

"_Gwen? What is it?_" His voice sounded strained and emotional – something that was rare for the Captain.

"I-I just saw people, Jack. There were people in my flat. Strange people…what's going on?" She stuttered, her words all stringing together, her heart still rapidly beating.

She heard Jack swear and yell something to someone on the other side of the telephone call. "_Come back to the hub, right now. Emergency._"

The phone clicked, then the dial tone sounded. Shocked, but now in work mode, Gwen ran out of the flat, keys in hand. She wanted to know what the hell was going on, and if it had anything to do with the mysterious Katylin and her dooming of the universe.

**--Torchwood--**

Jack hung up the phone and angrily pounded his hand on his desk before running his hands through his hair, a vain attempt to calm himself down. Ever since he was in the alleyway with Katylin and saw the TARDIS, he couldn't stop his heart from beating erratically. He still felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins, and the desperation – the _need_ – to get on the TARDIS and travel once again with the Doctor. It had scared him; he never spared a second's thought for Ianto or Gwen as he was racing toward the illusion. Even the fact that the universe itself was going to end was pushed out of his mind. It was scary, how much he had needed that.

Hands shaking, he turned to his computer and flipped on the news channels, watching as six different media sources filled the screen. He grew more worried as he realized that all of them were reporting on mysterious sightings of illusions that were coursing through Cardiff – no – the world. It really was happening.

Jack couldn't take anymore of it. Katylin had run off after the alleyway, to think or do whatever she needed to do. Ianto was down in the cells putting the weevil that he and Gwen had caught away, and Jack was at a loss. He had no idea how to stop this from happening, and it scared him how unsympathetic he was toward the idea. Maybe he would finally die…he spared a thought for that.

He was given no more time to wallow, however, because when he glanced up, a man was standing there, a large, goofy grin on his face. Jack jumped in surprise and yelped. The man just chuckled. He looked strange – trousers and a dress shirt with red suspenders and a tweed jacket. There was a red bow tie gracing his neck, and his hair was a mess. He had a prominent nose, but Jack was willing to admit he was at the very least cute. Then the Captain looked into the man's eyes, and he _knew._

"Doctor…" He breathed, emotions filling him. This wasn't his Doctor, but it was. Jack knew this man; he had been with him during the regeneration. He had been with the Doctor before, too. He forgot all about being deserted, and a flood of memories pounded in his mind. All the places they had been, the people they had saved. Jack Harkness, companion to the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor.

"Jack," the Doctor said simply. Then the Captain blinked, and he was gone.

Jack just sat there, unable to move, unable to do anything as the memories and feeling froze him to the spot. Then, a scream filled the hub, and the spell was broken.

Jack burst out of his office and flew down the steps. The only person in the hub was Ianto, and that scream was one of terror. "Ianto!" He yelled, but there was no response.

All the monitors in the hub were on, flashing wildly through all the news stations of the world. The stations all had different names, but what they were broadcasting was the same – mysterious sightings of things that could never be.

Jack found Ianto in the hub kitchen, backed against a wall, staring straight ahead. His face was paler than ever, all the blood having drained from his face. He was unblinking, tears falling down his eyes. He didn't even register the Captain entering the room. Jack approached him, scared. "Ianto? Yan?"

The Welshman didn't blink, only looked forward in fear. The look in the man's eyes was pure and raw terror. A soft noise filled the air, and it took Jack a moment to realize that Ianto was whimpering. Jack called his name, shook him, hugged him, kissed him, but nothing would snap the man out of his trance.

Then, as suddenly as he had been petrified, Ianto was once again free. His knees gave out from under him and he collapsed, stopped from hitting the floor only by Jack's strength. "Please," Ianto whispered, clinging onto Jack as he struggled to stand up. "Don't let them take me…not again."

Jack held the trembling man tight. "It's ok, Ianto. It's not real." But it was real. Somewhere, sometime, a alternate universe Ianto Jones was going through that terror that the young man had just witnessed. It was mind blowing, and very scary.

Ianto sniffed and let go, managing to stand up on his own. He let out a big breath, choking on the air. "It was so real Jack…"

Then the cog door alarm sounded, and things got a lot more complicated.

"Jack!" Gwen's voice came reverberating through the hub. "What the bloody hell is going on?"

The two men ran out to meet her. Katylin ran in right behind Gwen, her eyes wide, her face showing signs of tearstains. She was looking around, an almost glazed look in her eyes, the same look that Ianto had witnessed when the girl had been doing an equation in her mind. "It's happening. It's fucking happening," Katylin said, her voice flat.

Jack didn't have time to respond. All the alarms in the hub went off at once. The Earth started to shake, the vibrations coming from the very core of the universe. Time itself started to unravel, and the rips in time became clearly visible. Glances of other lives - other times filled the small lab. Each person saw something different, some different invisible figure and that scared the hell out of them. A blinding, brilliant flash of light flashed.

And then nothing.

* * *

**Review?**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Sorry for the wait, time got away from me. This was actually one of the first chapters for this that I wrote, and have been itching to get it posted, since it's also my favorite from the series. Thanks to all of my reviewers and silent stalkers, you guys keep me going. ^_^**

**Disclaimer: All I own is Katylin, and even she was adopted by Torchwood.**

* * *

……..Ianto shifted comfortably under the covers as the alarm invaded his sleepy head. He groaned, and unhappily slipped one hand out from the safety of the sheets and roamed around, trying to blindly find the snooze button before the alarm became permanently imbedded in his head.

A warm hand suddenly enveloped his, and Ianto smiled to himself, his face hidden under the sheets. The alarm stopped beeping, and the bed dipped as another body sat on it. Ianto found those warm hands crawling along his bare chest, then dipping below his waist.

"Wake up." Lips murmured dangerously close to Ianto's ear as his breath hitched. The hands moved away from his body and then came back, pinning him down on the bed, restricting his movement. Under the covers, a body shifted so that it was pressed on top of hip. The same lips that whispered to him attached themselves to his lips softly, and Ianto responded eagerly.

Then the alarm came back with a vengeance, and a chuckle was heard. Then the warm body moved away, and the sheets were ripped unceremoniously away from Ianto's body without warning. He let out a cry of surprise, sitting up wildly grabbing for them.

"Jack!" The name slipped out of Ianto's mouth without a second thought, and he adopted an annoyed look on his face as he crossed his arms and stared at the man, who was standing by the edge of the bed, a handful of duvet in his guilty hands. The man smirked and pulled them the rest of the way off the bed and dropped them on the floor. Ianto groaned, knowing that he would be the one who would have to make the bed later. He realized that Jack was only halfway dressed, his trousers on – suspenders hanging by his waist. He had his white undershirt on, but the rest of his clothes were no where to be seen. He also had extreme bed-head, and was walking around barefooted. Ianto took all this in, and a sudden thought shot through his head. Jack had stayed the night. He frowned – Jack _never_ stayed the night, not at his place. Ianto normally stayed at the hub on nights that the Captain wanted to have some fun, and even then he left in time to change and get a little bit of sleep. His eyes blearily glanced down, and his confusion increased as Ianto realized he was wearing pajama bottoms. Normally, when he and Jack were done, he was too tired to clean up, never mind pull on a pair of pants.

Something was wrong.

But something deeper within him whispered to him, telling him that he was being ridiculous. Jack had moved in with him several months ago, remember? He shook his head, then reluctantly slid out of bed. Come to think of it, he couldn't remember going to sleep either. Must have been a rough night. He sighed as he watched Jack leave the room – the man was satisfied that Ianto wouldn't be going back to sleep – then walked into the bathroom, where he washed his face, trying to clear his confused emotions. The he went to his closet and selected a dry-cleaned suit. He had another flash of doubt course through his mind as he saw Jack's clothes on hangers dispersed randomly and sloppily throughout his own neat and ordered clothes.

He took his time putting on his suit and fixing his hair. When he was convinced he was as immaculate as he needed to be, Ianto stepped out of his bedroom. He walked through the living room on the way to the kitchen, and was surprised to find a young girl sitting on the couch, staring silently at the television – although the box was on mute. He frowned and cocked his head. She looked just like Katylin, only the girl couldn't be over fourteen years old. He opened his mouth to ask why she was there, but something else slipped out instead. "Katylin, sweetie, why are you still here? You should be on your way to school."

She turned to look at him, and Ianto saw how uncomfortable and upset she was with the situation. Without a second thought, he crossed the room and sat down next to her, throwing his arms around her and pulling her into a hug. He felt her lean into him, and Ianto was suddenly hit with a wave of emotions and memories. The day she came through the rift, her first words in English, then Welsh. First day of school, When she joined Torchwood officially, him and Jack adopting her. He remembered everything, and he _felt_ everything.

"I don't want to go to school today, Tad." She said sadly, staring at the screen, detaching herself.

Ianto frowned. "Why not, love?" He hesitated, surprised at how easily that word rolled off of his lips.

"Cause." She replied. Then, she stood up, exiting from Ianto's parental embrace. She stretched, then turned toward him. "I can help you and Jack out at the hub."

Ianto found himself automatically shaking his head. "It's hard enough to find excuses when we actually need you. The school is going to think we're doing something to you – all the bruises you have from our escapades."

Katylin rolled her eyes and hugged her arms. "So? I help save the world constantly. Why can't I get a day off."

Ianto stood up too, not wanting to let it go. "What's the truth, Kat?"

She sighed and stared at him. However, Ianto was the king of staring people down, and she soon broke. "It's career day at the high school. Juniors and Seniors had to write an essay about their future plans, and the college scouts are coming…"

Ah. Ianto felt his shoulders slump and he let out another sigh. "Fine."

Her face lit up and she thanked him several times before bolting to her room to get better equipped for a day in the hub. Ianto watched her go, then turned toward the kitchen, where he knew Jack was waiting. They had sat Katylin down a while ago when the first letters for colleges started to appear. They needed to figure out if she was going to stay with Torchwood, or go off to college. She had made her decision without a second thought, but on days like the current one, it was hard to face the fact that while the rest of her classmates were applying for colleges, she was fighting aliens. It was kinda hard to explain.

Ianto gave Jack a weak smile as he saw the man and ran his hand through his hair. The Captain had finished getting dressed and was standing by the door, as if he had been listening in on their conversation. Ianto frowned. The talk of college had gotten to him. It had only been four years ago that she had entered their lives, and now she was soon going to be leaving high school and becoming a full fledged member of Torchwood.

Jack, figuring out what Ianto was thinking about, approached him and wrapped his arms around the mans waist, pressing his chest to Ianto's back and breathing on his neck. "You have another year, you know. Before she graduates."

Ianto nodded. "I know. I feel old."

Jack snorted and swatted Ianto's arm playfully. "Watch it, I'm older than you."

Ianto just rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, sir."

Jack smirked and turned Ianto around, kissing him gently on the lips. "Love you." He whispered before letting go and bounding out of the room, yelling at Katylin to get her ass in gear, they were leaving……..

……..Ianto was nervous as he had ever been before. He stood in the large room, staring in the mirror as he straightened his tie, loosened it, tightened it, then straightened it again. He started to wipe his hands on his tuxedo jacket, but then stopped right before touching the fabric, instead reaching for a tissue to get rid of the sweat on his palms. The last thing he needed was two large handprints on his pants.

From behind him came a chuckle. He turned and frowned at his sister as she came up to him, smoothing down his jacket for him. "Relax Yan." She said soothingly – but not without a hint of humour in her voice. "You look great. You'll do great."

"I know…" He found himself saying. "But I don't want to screw this day up."

Rhiannon smiled. "This is your day too, silly."

Ianto snorted. "That's not what it felt like the past few months."

This elicited another chuckle from his sister, who checked her watch before her eyes widened slightly. "It's time! Come on Ianto."

He let out a shaky breath before holding out his arm for his sister to take a hold onto. Then, they walked out of the room and into the large banquet hall. There were rows and rows of white chairs set up, all facing toward the front of the room, where a platform had been erected. Dozens of flowers circled it, and there was a large archway behind it. A priest was standing on the platform, and all of the chairs were full of people. People who, when Ianto glanced at their faces, he automatically felt a name come to the tip of his tongue. They all looked like strangers, yet he knew that he knew them, each and every one of them. Rhiannon walked him to the front of the isle, and then everything clicked into place for him. He was getting _married._ But to who?

He glanced around frantically, looking for Gwen or Jack…who his mind came up blank when he tried to recall what they looked like. He knit his eyebrows together as he felt even the names he had just thought slip away…who was Jack again? Then he heard the music start to play, and he clasped his hands in front of him as he looked eagerly at the bride.

"Lisa…" He breathed, his eyes widening slightly as they started to tear up. She looked so beautiful as she walked down the isle, her dress white and sleeveless, hugging her in all of the right ways. Her hair was done up spectacularly, and she was sporting a large smile. She was holding a huge bouquet of flowers, and it seemed as if she was gliding as she walked up the isle. Her eyes locked onto his, and Ianto felt his knees go weak. He was marrying her – Lisa Halliet – she was going to be his wife.

He swallowed and glanced over at his sister, who was smiling and had identical tears in her eyes. Ianto was drawn back to Lisa, wiping away his tears quickly. He was the man, he shouldn't be crying.

She reached the alter and reached out, taking his hands as the priest started to read. Ianto wasn't listening, however, as he was lost in her eyes, his head getting overwhelmed by everything.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, something was trying to get pulled to his attention. He felt the edges of his mouth turn down slightly as he thought, trying to concentrate. Something wasn't right…A word popped to the front of his mind, but it only made him more confused. What the bloody hell was Torchwood?

He shook his head and focused once more on Lisa. It must just be his nerves playing tricks on him. He was here, with the love of his life, about to get married. It was absolutely perfect.

Ianto was in a daze as he recited his words, and couldn't stop smiling as Lisa recited hers as well. The rings were placed on both of their fingers, and finally, the priest pronounced them married.

He took her in his arms and gently brushed his lips to hers. "Love you." He muttered to her, suppressing a very unman-like giggle as she said it back.

His life was officially perfect……..

……..His eyes were burning, his face streaked with tears and blood. He had a cut on his cheek, and it felt as if it were on fire. He was shaking, unable to keep still, pressed up against the back wall of the tourist office. He felt weak, dizzy, yet he had to keep awake. He had to keep running. He was breathing hard, his shirt soiled and loose, yet his throat felt as if invisible hands were slowly squeezing it. His hand was poised, a small gun within is grasp. His team – Owen, Gwen, Tosh, Jack – they stood there, hands up by there chests, palms outward facing him as he unsteadily shifted the barrel to each of them and back again. He was panicking. Lisa, his Lisa was downstairs in the hub, and she was dying. He had to save her, he promised…

"I have nothing left to loose." He said, staring at Gwen as he realized the truth in his own words. Lisa was his life – had been since he met her. He couldn't let her go, not now, not after everything he had done. And damn them if they were going to get in his way.

"There's always something left to loose." Jack said, inching his hands closer to Ianto's gun, trying to disarm him.

"I'm going back in to save her." Ianto said, breathing hard as he fought to maintain control of himself. "Anyone tries to stop me…I'll shoot them." He said with a deadly serious face, knowing that, if it came down to it, between Lisa and one of them, he'd do it. He'd do anything to save her.

Gwen. She yelled at him, he lost focused, turned the gun toward her, started to squeeze. A flash out of the corner of his eye, and a wrenching pain shot through his arm as Jack jumped, tearing the gun out of his grasp and turning it on him. He was smashed against the wall, and Ianto let out a groan of pain.

"You make a threat like that you'd better be prepared to follow through." The cold barrel of Jack's gun pressed against the side of Ianto's head, and he closed his eyes, more tears streaming down his face. He was going to kill him now, and then Lisa. He had failed her, in every way possible. She was going to die, be destroyed, and he wouldn't be able to stop any of it from happening. He was too weak. "See, you disobey me now, and I really will shoot you."

Ianto bared his teeth, sick of the Captain's voice. "Get off me!" He half cried, half yelled as he struggled to get free.

"Do you want to go back in there? You go in to finish the job. If she's still alive…you execute her." Jack's cold voice said as he turned him around. Ianto couldn't believe what he just asked him to do. He stared at the man, hatred and disgust evident in his eyes.

"No way."

"You brought this down on us, you hid her. You hid yourself from us. Now it's time for you to stand as part of a team. The girl you loved has gone. Your loyalty is to us now." Jack said, his words grinding in Ianto's mind, and he sneered. What did the older man know about loyalty? He pranced around, forcing others to follow his orders, not caring about any of them – other than Gwen, of course. He shot her an ugly look. All of them, they have no idea what it means to love someone, to be willing to die for them.

"You can't order me to do that." Ianto spat.

"You execute her or I'll execute you both!"

"I won't do it. You can't make me. You like to think you're a hero, but you're the biggest monster of all." Ianto shook his head.

"I'm giving you ten minutes. Then we're coming in." Jack said, backing up a little bit, that sneer still on his face. Ianto almost thought the man was enjoying this. "Pick it up."

Ianto glanced on the ground, and saw the gun. He hesitated, then picked it up. He glanced at the weapon, then on each of the others in turn. His glance stopped at Jack, and suddenly, he knew what to do. Ianto's finger slowly wound around the trigger, and he swung his arm up quickly, aiming right between Jack's eyes.

Two loud blasts filed the air, and Ianto was thrown against the wall yet again. He sobbed, and glanced down at his hand. He dropped his gun and looked at Jack, a look of surprise, and relief on his face. The Captain was lying on the floor, a bullet between his eyes. Ianto let out a loud choked laugh, the sound delirious. Ianto's legs slid out from under him as he collapsed onto the floor, his body going numb. He brought his hand up to his chest, and it came away glistening red. He tried to take a deep breath, but ended up choking, a metallic taste filling his mouth. He spat, and red liquid dribbled down his chin.

His eyesight started to fade, black spots showing up everywhere. It was painful to breath, he couldn't get enough oxygen into his lungs. He tried to move, but couldn't. His head lulled to the side and his eyelids fluttered. He tried to scream, his whole body on fire, but he couldn't. He tried to hear something, anything, but all there was was a loud roaring in his ears, almost as if he was going over a rapids.

Then, right before his eyesight went black, he saw Jack's body twitch, then sit up straight. The man was alive! Ianto's last thought before he faded away into oblivion was how he had failed Lisa horribly……..

**--Torchwood--**

……..Gwen awoke to the annoyingly loud sound of a babies cry. She groaned and lifted her head up off of her pillow, glanced at the clock, and groaned again. It was almost two in the morning. She promptly laid her head back onto her pillow and rolled over, sleepily poking her husband. "Rhys…your turn."

Rhys just snored in response. Gwen sighed and slowly sat up in bed, rubbing her swollen belly as she did so. What ever made them want to have another one? She stood up and stretched a bit, before padding out of the room and down the hall, where she stopped at a freshly-painted door. She opened it slowly and peaked in, her ears being hit by the fresh cries of a baby. Sighing, Gwen entered the room and leaned over the cradle, scooping the little boy out and holding him gently in her arms. She started to rock him back and forth then, singing some wordless melody. He was so small in her arms; so small and fragile. He blinked a few times, his little blue eyes staring up at Gwen, a film of water covering them, his bottom lip trembling. All the tiredness that she had felt left her body, and she was no longer annoyed at the screaming. A soft smile spread on her face, and she started to coo at the little boy. Sometimes, she forgot the way that the little man giggled or laughed, or spilled milk down his chin. Memories of the first few months of his life filled her mind, and she mentally scolded herself for feeling so cross only moments ago.

Soon, he stopped crying and fell silent, little snot bubbles popping as he breathed in and out from his nose. Gwen leaned down and kissed the little boy on the forehead before putting him back in his cradle. She stayed there for a few moments, just watching the little boy sleep – _her_ little boy. "Night, Jack." ……..

……..Gwen winced as the alarm sounded, alerting the others that she was re-entering the hub. The sound bit into her head, causing the headache she had to worsen. She went to massage her head, and found her right arm terribly sore. She groaned, and a sharp pain traveled up the same arm. '_Bloody alien._' She thought as she went to her desk. More paperwork. She glanced over to the medical bay, where she saw Owen hard a work on some alien body. Lucky bastard, all the aliens he dealt with were dead, and he had Tosh so wrapped around his little finger that she would do all of his paperwork without a second thought. She sighed and sat down, pulling open the correct form. At least Ianto had organized the forms for everyone – no more digging around, hoping to find the correct paperwork.

She got to work, only to be distracted several minutes later by Jack's voice. He sounded a little angry, and was poking his head out of his office. Wondering what it was that she had done wrong, Gwen sighed and pushed herself away from her desk, walking slowly up the steps. Her arm had started to throb now, and her headache was growing worse.

She knocked on Jack's door – never going to make _that_ mistake again – and entered after waiting the allotted thirty seconds. As soon as the door closed behind her, she found herself backed up against the wall, the feeling of warm lips on hers as strong hands griped her arms. Surprised, Gwen gasped – allowing Jack to slip his tongue into her mouth. A hundred tastes at once filled her taste buds, and Gwen moaned, relaxing into the kiss. It seemed like hours, but was truly only seconds before Jack pulled back and smirked before continuing to spread kisses down her neck and around the edge of her t-shirt.

Gwen tilted her head back and suppressed another moan. Jack squeezed her arms tighter, and a jolt of pain shot through her arm, causing the man to hesitate, looking deep into her eyes with his pure blue ones. "You ok?"

His voice filled with worry, and he was rolling up her sleeve before she could protest. He saw the large bruise and frowned. "You need to let Owen see this."

Gwen just rolled her eyes and instinctively brought her hand up to Jack's cheek, stroking it gently. "I'm fine, love. Just a scratch."

Jack smirked and leaned his head forward, kissing her gently on the lips again before letting go. "I can send them home early."

Gwen allowed a smile to go across her face, and she glanced out of the window. It had been a while since they had a break, and it wasn't as if the world was going to end in the next couple hours…right? Then her eyes fell on Ianto, and her brow furrowed slightly. Something was wrong. "Wait…what about Ianto?"

"What about him?" Jack asked peaking out of the window as well. "I mean, sure, he could join us. Poor kid probably hasn't gotten any since Canary Warf." Jack laughed – it was a cruel laugh.

Gwen's frown deepened, and she tried to remember why what Jack was saying didn't make any sense. But the thought quickly faded, and was replaced by a sickening smirk as she found herself laughing along as well. "I really don't understand why you keep him here."

"It's his damn coffee." Jack mumbled back before wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her deeply. Gwen responded, and a bunch of memories flooded her mind. Starting her affair with Jack, Rhys finding out, Rhys leaving, her and Jack. It all made her giddy, and she started to giggle.

"Well, boss, I'm waiting." She said.

Jack rolled his eyes in an exaggerated movement. Then he stuck his head out of the door. "Owen, Tosh, Ianto! Go home! Gwen and I wanna have sex!"

Gwen stood there, her face blushing furiously as she watched Owen respond with a rude remark before washing his hands off and leaving. Gwen felt a tinge of sadness as she watched him go, but she had no idea why. Tosh was next, shutting down her computer – the same feeling for her. Ianto left next, rolling his eyes but glancing almost longingly at the Captain before turning and making his departure. Gwen frowned at that, but Jack's arms around her waist and his lips on her neck as his skilled hands began to caress her caused her to forget about everything……..

……..Gwen sat hunched over in Jack's office chair, scribbling her signature on some documents without taking the time to read them – that was Ianto's job, after all. She had grown to trust the man a lot more than she previously did, and was sure that he wouldn't give her anything to sign off on that was inappropriate use of Torchwood funds.

Gwen blinked her eyes rapidly, then automatically reached for her cup of coffee. She brought it to her lips and tilted the glass back, only to find it empty. She pouted, then stood up and walked to the door to the office. She opened it and stuck her head out. "Ianto, mate! More coffee!"

Then she slinked back into the office and closed the door, not waiting for a response. Pausing, she took in the sight before her. Why was she in Jack's office, doing _his_ paperwork? That thought wriggled into her mind, and Gwen frowned, trying to shake it off. She knew exactly why Jack wasn't here….didn't she?

Now confused, she went to the office computer and booted it up, once again sitting in the chair. The screen lit up and she went to the Torchwood personnel archives, where she pulled up Jack Harkness' file.

_Disappeared – presumed missing; speculation that he became a companion of The Doctor._

Gwen gasped at the date – it was almost a year and a half ago. Memories swarmed her. She saw him waking up after being dead for so long. Hugging her, Tosh, Owen – snogging Ianto. Then leaving – taking the hand in a jar and leaving. She went crazy, searching everywhere. Owen drank a lot, and Tosh barely left the computer screen. She remembered watching Ianto as he grew more introverted, falling back inside of himself – dislocating himself from them. His suits growing looser on his body, hanging off of his small frame. But he always came to work, always did his job. Gwen hadn't noticed any of this until she used his computer for something, and found a program that searched CCTV every day for images of Jack Harkness. She knew it was still on his computer, running today.

She remembered how she finally broke it off with Rhys shortly after becoming in charge of Torchwood 3. How she tried to fill in Jack's shoes, but wasn't able to – they tally of wins to loss' grew closer together, until they became lost causes more than anything else. She remembered how Torchwood was dying – a slow and painful death.

She was jolted out of her memories by a knock on the door. Ianto entered then, carrying a cup of coffee. Gwen was him, and wanted to cry. He was so pale, his eyes sunken into his face. His suit hung off of his frame, and he looked so sad. She wanted to cry, but instead took his coffee with an over-cheery smile.

He turned to leave, and Gwen called to him. "Ianto, you ok?"

He turned, the edges of his lips raising slightly. "Yes ma'am."

Then he left, slipping through the door. Gwen let out a slow breath and sunk into her chair as more memories flooded her. Owen and Tosh gave up and returned to normal lives a few months after Jack's disappearance. Gwen kept at it a few months, before giving up. Ianto never did, and one night, after a heated argument with Owen over the Captain, the coffee boy had retreated into the archives, where, if Gwen hadn't gone in search for him, he would have never come out. She shuttered and stared at her coffee with a forlorn expression. Jack was supposed to come back, wasn't he?

Then the rift alarm sounded, and Gwen stood up, the confusion and sadness gone from her face. She was the leader of Torchwood 3 now, and she had a job to do……..

**--Torchwood--**

……..*Jack woke up slowly, tightening his grip around the other person in the bed, pulling him closer. Jack – eyes still closed – breathed in deeply, his nose buried in the other man's hair. His eyes fluttered open then, and his mouth broke into a large grin. He kissed the other man's neck gently, placing butterfly kisses here and there, trying to wake him. "Mornin' Yan." He whispered.

Ianto just groaned and turned around, burying his face into Jack's chest and entwining their legs. Jack chuckled and kissed the man's head, stroking his back with his hand. He glanced around at the hotel room they were staying in, smirking as he remembered the events of last night. The room was a mess, and there were clothes laying in places that Jack never thought that clothes could reach. There would definitely be an extra charge on their credit card. But it was worth it – he couldn't remember the last time he felt like he did then.

He just sat there for a few moments, running his hand through Ianto's hair, enjoying the nothingness of everything. Then he turned around, lying on his back, and glanced over at the clock. It was almost noon. He smirked as he felt Ianto move with him, reluctant to let go. "Stop movin'" The Welshman muttered. "Tired."

Jack just rolled his eyes and stayed still per the man's request. He felt something sitting on his left hand finger, then, and held it up, frowning slightly as he looked at his hand.

A silver band circled his ring finger. Jack knit his eyebrows together as he glanced toward Ianto's left hand, which was wrapped around his torso. He was wearing a matching ring. Jack's breath hitched as he slipped his off, reading the engraving on the inside. It was written in Welsh, but he knew exactly what it said. '_Don't forget to empty the bins._'

For some reason, he chuckled at that, and found Ianto's eyes watching him. "Second thoughts, sir?"

"None." Jack said without hesitation, not missing the look of pure happiness that was shining through the Welshman – _his_ Welshman's eyes. He slipped the ring back on, and a barrage of images flitted through his mind. The Doctor. Donna. His new team. Gwen. Ianto's family – very large family. Henry. Their first kiss. First date. The Daleks invading earth, how Ianto was right there with him. Their wedding yesterday. A lot of people that he didn't think he knew, but seemed familiar to him. He glanced back at Ianto, and felt a strong warmth spread through his body, starting at his heart. '_I'm in love…'_

Ianto, almost as if reading his mind, stirred and sat up in the bed, rubbing his eyes blearily after taking in the sight around him. "Cariad, we made a mess."

"But it was worth it." Jack stated, raising his eyebrow and giving a smirk, unable to stop his heart from skipping a beat as Ianto's term of endearment reached his ears.

"What time is it?" The Welshman asked as he pulled the covers off and slid out of bed. It was then that Jack realized Ianto was naked. He smirked as his eyes slid up and down the Welshman. Ianto, realizing what Jack was doing, started to blush. Then, glancing at the clock, he groaned.

Jack got out of bed as well – naked also – and approached Ianto from behind, slipping his hands around the man's waist and kissing his neck softly. "Relax. This. Is. Your. Time." Jack murmured between kisses. Ianto turned in his grip then and kissed his lips. It grew, and Jack found himself melting in the other man's mouth. This felt so right…so _perfect._ Slowly, he pulled Ianto back into bed, determined to once again prove how much he loved him……..

……..**He was in a cell. A small, dark, disgusting cell. It smelled of a mixture of death, puke, sickness, and despair. The smell filled Jack's nostrils and brought tears to his eyes. He sat huddled in the corner, pressing against the filthy walls, trying to make himself unnoticed. His whole body shook and pain racked through him. His eyes were squinting to see in the semi darkness – his hair fell in front of his face, sticking together from the grim and dirt. There were piles of throw up everywhere, and feces littered the ground. There were some newspapers and straw scattered around, both having seen better days.

He reached out and saw his arm. It was covered in grim and filth and blood, his nails long and ragged and yellow, his skin a sickly color. There were chains on his wrists and ankles, and a thick, itchy collar around his neck. Every time he moved it rubbed against his raw skin and sent even more pain through his body. He was so hungry, his stomach growling in protest, wrenching knots in his abdomen, making him want to scream in pain. His clothes were nothing more than shreds of cloth hanging off of his small frame. He could feel his skin pull at his ribs as he breathed, and was scared to take too big of a breath, in case they would puncture his skin and he would bleed to death.

Then the large door to the cell opened and someone walked in, carrying a bowl of something. Jack yelled at the man for help, crying out. '_Help me! Where am I?_' He screamed. But the only thing that came out of his mouth was a guttural yell, not worthy of being called human. He choked on his words and bent over, his eyes screaming in protest to the light that was coming from behind the door. He turned away, and when Jack dared to look back, the door was closed and a bowl of something sat in the middle of the floor.

He inched closely to the bowl very slowly, scared of what might be in it. He recognized that it was food and dived into it. The muck burned his throat on the way down and he choked and gagged, but didn't stop. It was disgusting and smelled worse than his room, but he was unable to stop himself, so hungry that he was sure he would have eaten anything they would have given him, as long as it didn't break his teeth.

The muck was gone long before Jack wanted it to be, and he slowly crawled back to his corner, where he began to throw up, his stomach rejecting the 'food.' After he was finished, he fell into his own sickness and cried himself into unconsciousness. He dreamed of things that had happened to him before. Of the one hundred and six years that he had been tortured and kept in this hell-hole. Of how he had refused to join Torchwood instead of banding together with them – the reason behind his current containment. He remembered all the times that he had been killed, and all the cruel ways it had happened. Slowly, Jack began to loose his humanity to the dreams and the memories that flooded him.

He woke up sometime later, feeling worse than he did before. The door opened once again, and a man strode in. Jack felt a streak of fear course through his veins, and he automatically backed up, pressing against the wall, trying to get further and further away. The man then turned and gestured to someone else to enter.

Jack's eyes widened in recognition. Immaculate suit, cute Welsh look, perfectly combed hair. Ianto. Jack called out to him, begging him to help, to get him out of this horrible place. But once again all that came out was an inhuman shriek. He pulled at his chains, but no avail. '_Ianto!_'he cried. But the man just stood there, staring at him with a mixture of horror and pity in his eyes. Then, the first man – the one to be feared – stepped forward and pointed a stick at him. A burst of hot searing pain shot through his body, then darkness……..

……..It was a large, spacious room, cold enough to bring goose bumps to his arms, even though he was wearing his heavy RAF coat. There was a large tank in the middle of the room, with gas inside. If he looked close enough, he could see something moving inside. There was a feeling of panic and fear that sat uncomfortably in his stomach, and Jack didn't like that. His breathing was slightly labored, and as he turned to look next to him, he saw Ianto was in the same predicament.

"_We have released a virus. It will kill everyone in the building._" The voice came from the tank, and Jack panicked, running towards the doors, bursting through them and yelling at the first people he could find.

"The air's poisoned. Call someone, shut down the air conditioning. Block every air vent. Gas masks, hazmat suits, oxygen cylinders!" Satisfied that he had gotten the message across, Jack ran back into the room with the alien and aimed his gun at the container, mimicking Ianto's movement. "You made your point. Now stop this and we can talk."

"_You are dieing, even now._" If the foreign voice could have sounded smug, that was what it would sound like.

Jack, determined, emptied his clip into the tank, Ianto doing the same. The bullets hit the glass, then glanced off, doing nothing but exhausting their bullet supply. It let out an inhuman scream then, a shriek, like nails over a chalkboard. "What's that noise?" Jack said, his breathing already becoming labored. "What's it doing?"

The creatures inside of the tank slammed against the side of the tank, causing Jack and Ianto to jump. Jack turned toward Ianto, breathing heavily. "We've got to get you out of here." He squeezed the other man's arms, not wanting to let go. "I can survive anything, but you can't!"

"To late." Ianto said calmly, staring into Jack's eyes. "I breathed the air."

"There's got to be something, there's got to be an antidote!" Jack said, unable to let go of his Welshman at that moment, not wanting to loose him yet.

"_You said you would fight._" The 456 said them, mocking him, teasing him with his own words as Ianto slowly grew limp in his arms.

"Then I take it back, alright! I take is all back, but _not him_!" Jack yelled at the creature, his eyes growing damp – he knew what was happening. Next to him, Ianto's knees buckled under him and he fell to the floor. Jack turned and caught him before he fell, leading him gently to the floor. "No! No no no no no. Ianto, no!"

He cradled him then, his head in Jack's hands. The Captain sat there on the floor, unable to stop the tears as the man in his arms slowly drifted off.

It said some other words then, but Jack wasn't paying attention. All his focus was on the Welshman in his arms…_his_ Welshman. "It's all my fault." Jack said suddenly, his head bombarded with all these things he never said, never did with Ianto. He had taken all the time for granted, wasting precious seconds because of his ego and pride. And now they were taken away from him, and suddenly there would never be enough time.

"It's not." Ianto breathed, shaking his head weakly as he clung to Jack with his last strength, staring into the man's eyes.

"Don't speak, save your breath." Jack stumbled over the words, choking back a sob. He needed to stay strong now, for the man. He knew that there would be no help coming, and that everything was not going to be alright. Jack stroked Ianto cheek, tears forming as he felt how cold the other man was already becoming.

Ianto started to cry then too, his face bunching up and tears falling from his eyes. "I love you." He cried, never taking his eyes away from Jack.

Jack shook his head. "Don't." He said. Don't make it hurt anymore than it already is. He had watched so many loved ones die before, and he didn't want to go through it again. Not now, not on this day. He was so young, Jack was so old. It didn't seem fair.

Ianto's head lulled to the side, and Jack sniffed. "Ianto? Ianto! Ianto, stay with me. Ianto, stay with me please." He begged, unable to control himself. "Ianto, stay with me, please!" He cried then, his voice unable to stay steady any longer.

Ianto blinked. He blinked and for a moment, Jack thought that it would be ok. He thought that the 456 spared the man laying in his lap. "Hey."

"It was good, yeah." Ianto said between labored breaths. Jack continued to stroke his cheek, willing him to come back, to stop dieing on him. He couldn't, not yet. Not like this.

"Yeah."

"Don't forget me." The Welshman said then.

Jack felt a fresh onslaught of tears, and shook his head. "Never could." Even as he spoke those words, he knew it was a lie. He would live forever, never visibly aging, while on the inside his memory would slowly shrivel and die, to be replaced by new moments. And he would slowly forget the Welshman's face, the way he would talk and say 'yes, sir.' What he felt like when he looked into those beautiful Welsh eyes, or how happy he made him feel. Jack would forget it all.

"In a thousand years time, you wont remember me." Ianto managed to get out, and Jack shook his head and held him closer, wishing for all of the world that what the man was saying was true.

"Yes I will." Jack said then, with determination laced in with his grief. He couldn't allow himself to forget the Welshman, to forget what they had. What they could have had. And then, he spoke those forbidden words. "I promise, I _will._"

And then, Ianto breathed his last breath, and became limp in Jacks arms. It was almost as if he had been waiting – waiting for those words that he had desperately needed to hear.

"Ianto?" Jack whispered. "Ianto? Ianto, don't go." He held the body closer, rocking gently back and forth. His own breathing was becoming harder and harder, his chest restricting slowly. His brain becoming fuzzy from the lack of oxygen. "Don't leave me please. Please don't."

"_He will die. And tomorrow, your people will deliver the children._"

Jack looked at the 456 then, hating the creature with every ounce of his existence, blaming it for everything that was happening. He swore revenge then. He would revenge Ianto's death, no matter _what_ the cost. He felt his mind go blank, then, and as a last second effort, he leaned forward and kissed Ianto, trying to breath life back into the young man's frail body.

But he was too late……..

* * *

*Borrowed this plot from the wonderful Helen Pattskyn and her Torchwood AU'verse with her permission.

** Borrow this plot from the wonderful blucougar57 and her series, "What Never Should Be" with her permission.

**Review?**


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